December 22, 2013

Christmas Decorations this year

When you move a lot, you always have to find a new spot for your Christmas decorations.

At our first house, we didn't have a whole lot of room for a tree, but we had a great corner for it.

2010

At our second house, we had a whole room for the tree.

2011-2012

And, if you recall, I left it up until March that year (2011-12).

Now, the tree is in an inconvenient place, but I think it looks good. My biggest complaint is that the only place to put it was in front of the shelf with my nativity scene. I didn't want to move the shelf for a month though. When you move often, the last thing you want to do is unnecessarily rearrange wall-decor.

My mother-in-law sent this to me for my birthday last year. I spotted it in Carlisle last Christmas.

I'm a sucker for mini-trees.

I feel like this wreath is too pretty/valuable to put on the outside of our front door. This year, and last, it's hung on the closet door. I made it myself. The ornaments are all from Target and the paper scroll is a 4th grade Christmas ornament I made in 1996-ish.

One of our stockings. I don't have stocking hooks (haven't found ones I like), so I just hang them on curtain rods as decoration.

Snowman gourd. Bought at the Alaska State Fair in 2011.

Mini light-up tree. Bought for $11 at Fred Meyer in 2009 because Scott was deployed and I wanted a tree. It's 2 feet tall. It also served as my classroom tree for 2 years and now I actually keep it out year round because it doesn't exactly scream "this is only a Christmas decoration".

Mini-tree at work. Classroom 2010.

These are my favorite of the yarn wreaths that I made last year. I received the moose pin as a gift from an Alaska friend and figured it looked right at home there.

I've been checking out Hobby Lobby every time we go to Springfield and I found this there. I feel like we need decorations to liven up the walls, but at the same time, clutter is not a friend of mine.

Angi posted a garland tutorial. I had these letters in the closet because I was going to make something with them last year and never did. I painted them bright red and glued them to some ribbon and, much to Scott's displeasure, pounded some nails into the wall. There's probably a more constructionally-sound way to fasten this to the wall, but oh well. My way worked too.

I'd been eyeing this tree every time we've gone into The Cracker Barrel since September. I had a gift card, so I finally gave up and "bought" it for free. I don't know why that was such a hard decision.

My grandma had a similar one, and I've always liked ceramic trees.

This post serves more as a record for me because, as usual, we'll be in a new house next year. Hopefully one we own!

I love them! I'm determined to buy new ornaments and probably lights when everything is discounted after Christmas. I made one living room my Christmas room, and I always hang Christmas cards around the doorway in the dining room and living room. Just little things :)

I'm crossing my fingers that I'll get my grandmother's ceramic tree one day (she made it herself!), but for now, I just gaze at our ugly fake tree and dream of the day I'll smell some real pine again. Merry Christmas!

By a house you "own," do you mean you might be moving back to PA???? Sorry if you answered this in another post. If you can't tell by all of my comments tonight, I am slowly trying to catch up on your blog. I've had a hectic school year and have not kept up with it (or my own blog for that matter), but I'm working on getting used to my new teaching position and motherhood. Once I get a handle on all that business, I should be back to normal! :) If you're coming back to PA, I will seriously do a happy dance!!!!